NEW YORK (RNS) Traditionalist Jews and tree-huggers alike are coming together for Birkat HaHammah, a Jewish holiday that falls only once every 28 years, marking the sun’s return to its original position at creation.
This year, the celebration takes place at sunrise April 8, followed by the start of Passover at sunset. The timing is a coincidence that won’t happen again until 2437; unlike major Jewish holidays, which run on a lunar cycle, the “blessing the sun” is based on the Julian calendar.
Still, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life has encouraged Jews to take advantage of the convergence, offering suggestions for tying the obscure observance with the major annual holiday.
Families can discuss the meaning of Birkat HaHammah during the traditional questions asked at the first Seder meal, and turn the pre-Passover ritual of ridding homes of leavened bread into a simultaneous search for light bulbs that can be replaced with energy-efficient models, said Liore Milgrom-Elcott, COEJL spokeswoman.
“We’re encouraging people to look for ways we waste energy along with the leavened bread,” she said. “We want them to really think about the sun and all that it can do for us.”
A few groups have come up with their own ideas: in Winston-Salem, N.C., Jews will gather outside Temple Emanuel at dawn to share their final taste of leavened bread for the week — bagels — and burn the leftovers while blessing the sun with songs and prayers.
Dozens of other Birkat HaHammah observances have been planned throughout North America and Israel, ranging from a sunrise meditation service at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston, Ill., to a Yeshiva University presentation last month in New York City by Rabbi J. David Bleich, author of “Bircas HaChammah: Blessing of the Sun-Renewal of Creation.”
COEJL has compiled a list of events and other information at www.blessthesun.org. Birkat HaHammah last fell on April 8, 1981; it will next fall on April 8, 2037.
“Twenty-eight years ago, we were ignorant of the environmental realities and energy realities that we were heading towards,” Milgrom-Elcott said. “We didn’t want to just let this opportunity slip and not have the chance again for another 28 years.”
By Nicole Neroulias
Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission
Beliefnet
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posted March 30, 2009 at 7:09 pm
There is a time for ebb and tide in life, I don’t think these Churches have to worry about a thing.
posted March 30, 2009 at 7:18 pm
My post above was posted under “Denominations Trim Presence on Capitol Hill. ???????
posted March 30, 2009 at 7:30 pm
The sun will not be back in the position of where it was in creation until 2037, not 2437. Typo.
I take my leavened bread, any bread, and if it is unused I toast it and feed it to the birds in my backyard. Burning it might have a bibical significance for the jewish, however. You toast it so the dough won’t choke the birds.
posted March 30, 2009 at 7:30 pm
The sun gives life…it is appropriate that it receive the respect it is due. What a great celebration.
posted March 30, 2009 at 7:34 pm
There is a typo here. The sun will be back in 2037, not 2437.
Whenever I have leavened bread, any bread, I toast it and feed it to the birds in our backyard. The jewish may have a bibical reason for burning it, though. Toast bread you feed to birds so the dough doesn’t choke the birds.
posted March 30, 2009 at 7:45 pm
ILMHO, for making such a mess on this article posting, but then Beliefnet helped me.
posted March 30, 2009 at 10:20 pm
It’s not a typo – the next time the holidays will fall on the same day is 2437; the 2037 (which appears later in the article) is just the next time Jews celebrate Birkat HaHammah.
posted March 31, 2009 at 7:03 am
So how does anyone purport to know where the Sun was “at Creation”?
Ignoring the scientific issues with which the tribes that authored the writings that were handed down, more or less accurately, were of course totally unfamiliar; ignoring all those scientific issues, how does anyone purport to know where the sun was “then” with anything like enough accuracy to say when it gets in “that position” again?
posted March 31, 2009 at 11:16 am
Good questions, nnmns, but the idea is fun even if in scientific terms, who does know where the sun was at Creation?
posted March 31, 2009 at 11:30 am
nnmns
That’s the fun of these things. Holidays have the meaning you invest in them, and little more. Christmas has little to do with Jesus’ birth and everything to do with God’s incarnation – two very different things. But we use the day in the pagan way and make it our own. This certainly seems to be a way to incorporate a little Jewish tradition with a solar celebration. So don’t lament the mythology, enjoy the party!
“Good Day Sunshine! Good Day Sunshine!”
posted March 31, 2009 at 12:07 pm
jestrfyl, I know have the tune to the song lines above running through my head!
) It’s actually sunny here today, so it fits.
posted March 31, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Mithra-ists and Zoroastrians might have something interesting to say about this happening just before Easter!
Here comes the sun – la -da -da -da
Here comes the SON – and I say – it’s alright
I feel an Easter sermon emerging – at least for the sunrise service.
posted March 31, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I just spent some time reading the resources in the website mentionsed. It occured to be that Bishop Kopernig in 16th century Krakow (Copernicus to the rest of us) might have had something to say about this. It seems to be the basis for this celebration is that the sun moves and we stay in one place – hence every 28 years the sun is where it started at Creation. These contemporary resurces focus more on the solar power situation and celebrating our ability to work in conjunction with the sun, and not to promulgate more mythologies. It is a pretty cool concept, aside from the feeble science – although I bet that guy, Ham, from the Creation “science” gang would eat this up.
Sun Sun Sun – here it comes!
posted March 31, 2009 at 3:03 pm
I’m all for religious celebrations of (most, anyway) Pagan holidays and events. Like Christmas.
And we owe our existence to the sun, so let’s get out and enjoy it!
Of course we also owe our existence to a moderate greenhouse effect, the ozone layer, earth’s magnetic field and some other things, so let’s get out and enjoy them, too!
posted March 31, 2009 at 8:05 pm
AMEN!!! Brother’s jestrfyl and nnmns!